JIS Services

The Seville Heritage Park in St. Ann has been reopened, following its closure in November to repair damage caused by Hurricane Ivan.
Joan Seagears, the facility’s operations manager, told JIS News that the repair work included rebuilding and repairing damaged structures and upgrading the exhibits. “We have included a vast amount of artifacts and we now project more clearly, the four cultures (Taino, African, Spanish and English ) linked to Seville,” she informed.
She noted however, that much more work needed to be done, in terms of expanding and diversifying offerings and promoting Seville as a major heritage education centre and tourism attraction site. “We are planning to extend our programme in order to accommodate heritage tourism in Jamaica and in achieving this, we are going to be tapping into universities and colleges overseas so as to expand our promotion,” she told JIS News.
According to Mrs. Seagears, the January 6 tour of the facility, by 680 students from Lynn University in Florida, was indicative of the kind of direction the organisers wanted to take the attraction.
She is therefore appealing to tour operators to think of innovative ways of getting foreign students to come to Seville and to learn more about the country’s history and culture.
Mrs. Seagears also encouraged members of the public, to support the mission of the Seville Heritage Park, which is to become the most exciting, the most authentic and the most dynamic heritage park in the Western Hemisphere.
Seville Heritage Park is an organisation under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture. It is supported by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust.